My name is Don DeLeva, I am a Seattle based artist. I work mainly in acrylic on wood panel. My art vacillates between POP Surrealism and abstraction mainly focusing on portraits and the visualization of personality and perspective. Recently, I have been bringing both styles together to create a fuller more vibrant image. This site is dedicated to the ideas that inspire my work art. Thank you for visiting.

Friday, December 29, 2017

This is part of a new sort of post method for me since, I seem to be so sporadic. I am going to try to give a photo evolution history for each painting.

This is the first one. At this point there is no title of the painting, but you will see as I paint the title of the work will change.

3/4/18-UPDATE on the stump painting: Still nothing. It is sitting in my studio staring at me. So times it take months. I have had paintings take years to finish.

2/08/18-
At this point I seem to have come to a stand still on this painting. Not really sure why, I just can't seem to get a good look on what is going on and where it is going. Time away from it is a good thing.

No. 9 front 01/31/2018At this point I am around 70% complete. I will be saturating the colors but I am still discovering the image.

No.8 front 01/26/2018
A working title : Kitty and the Swan

No.7 side- 01/22/2018
Sometimes I find turning a painting on it's side and paint helps to find out the path of the painting. Who knows maybe this image wants to be horizontal...

No.7 face- 01/22/2018
Still no real title. I thought about 'Leaving myself in Maui' but I am not really sold on that title yet. The image is getting a little too heavy for that.

No.6 face- 01/15/2018
Not too much has changed, just filling some computational elements to set up a direction of movement at this point the painting still seems to be about our trip to Maui and the feeling of the sand and surf pulling my body out to deeper water .

No.5 face- 01/13/2018 phase 3 of this day.As you can tell I have sanded out a lot of the painting. Sanding is a big part of my process. It gives me random textural opportunities that I could never make if I had to think them all out.

No.5 face- 01/13/2018 phase 2 of this day.Here I put a white wash over a lot of the color.

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Candy Breath is a first attempt to bring both my Pop Surrealist and Abstraction tendencies together.
As you view the painting you can start to see cartoonist features blend into realistic features that are abstracted and then disappear. I do this give the impression of a personality changing as mood changes and conversation ebbs and flows.

Friday, September 8, 2017

I started painting on wall paper, this is on Silver Mylar it's more of an experiment. At work I have access to so many types of surfaces that I decided to start taking advantage of the scraps and recycling bins.

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

MeBot and Timmy are two characters I have been panting for a while now. They have been in many abstracts It's only now that I have painted them on their own.

MeBot : Acrylic on wood, 6x6

Timmy : Acrylic on wood, 6x6

This Idea of an Alphabet

This morning while painting an abstract I started to realize that it might help people understand my more complicated work if I paint my characters in a non abstract way. Kind of like sounding out letters phonetically until you understand how to pronounce a word. This is how I understood how to listen to noise music.

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

I was reading "The Doors of Perception " by Aldous Huxley during the painting of this work.
One does not need to be under the influence of mind altering substances to understand the malleability of reality and how we consistently change our perception of the now to assess and comprehend our present.

My art de-focuses focal point in order to challenge the viewers perception of what they are looking at. My paintings are meant to "visually change" as moods, sounds and environment change.
The work is not so much about the image, but more about the perception of the viewer.
My goal is to get the viewer to actually "see" themselves think.

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

This painting brings me to a place in my work that is easy to criticize. It's a cat dressed in a jacket...

Why do I feel the need to explain this?
One, I painted it as a gift.
Two, I have a cat and yes I think she is cute as hell.
Three, I have come to a place in my 30 years of painting that I am done with the critics in my head and hands.

I just want to paint. I have only about 15 to 20 years left and I just want to paint and promote it the way that is most comfortable to me.

Maybe you get to a place in your life that you realize the things that are truly you are the most powerful for you.
For example, I would much rather be painting then socializing. I think this has been a major component in why my work is not more commonly known.